Tuesday, April 5, 2016

[Note: I just realized I haven't posted anything here for almost a year. With the corporate dinosaurs (especially UMG) recently flailing their tails again at mashups and unofficial remixes, destroying Soundcloud in the process and now attacking Hearthis, I decided it's wise to keep this blog updated in case my Hearthis account gets whacked too. So without further ado...] Like the original Crumplebury, Crumplstock 1, 2, and 3 were gigantic three-day weekend music festivals and internet events featuring international DJs playing a huge range of music (mashups and much more) in one-hour sets, mostly done live. Organized by mashup impresario and Crumplebangers-founder Pom Deter (who also manages his own in-house Crumple-themed clothing line), all of the Crumplstock shows were huge fun. Highly diverse sets by numerous DJs from around the world, many of whom I'm proud to call friends, great banter on the chat channels, and the all-around joyful vibe made these festivals massively rewarding. These were my sets...Crumplstock 1 (April 24-26, 2015).My set was on April 25, 2015, 10PM (UTC+1). It was basically a showcase of my own mashups from the previous years, but done live. I even dropped my two "Smells Like..." boots because a latecomer requested the Futurama one. I also included a J.J. Cale cover of ours at the end (by Empty O).

This live set of mine featured lots of demos of my (to date, still unreleased) mashups and songs by my bands (Empty O, Expedient Means, and with rapper, Chicorama). This was kind of a "sneak peak" at some things to come and I enjoyed putting more of our original stuff and covers out there.

Another not-I mashup showcase presented on Jan. 22 at 11PM UTC, featuring tunes from my entire oeuvre. Doing it live, I was reacting to colleagues' and punters' feedback and attempted to keep it real to the best of my ability. It's very hip-hop-oriented at the beginning, but gradually turns into (methinks) an awesome electro-ethnic soundclash.

For Crumplstock 3, I did another set on Sunday, Jan. 24 (first show of the day at 1PM UTC). Like the Crumplbury aftershow this was just me as a DJ, playing a bunch of tunes I like, with only a few of my mashups, and giving proper respect to the recently-deceased artists, Alan Rickman, David Bowie, and Lemmy. But after having fallen asleep to the previous night's shows, my original live set turned out a bit hungover and dour. I recently expanded and improved it, with a nod to recently deceased greats, George Martin and Keith Emerson, but kept most of my original choices intact.